Monday, November 20, 2006

The Moving Finger - Bush and The Neocons

The lovefest is over * Bring Back Military Draft ?

The vice president and his friends raised their glasses after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad. Recently, a few of us nonentities gathered in Campbell, California, to toast the defeat of the Republicans. By chance we happened to open two bottles of red, both French -- a Margaux and a St Estèphe. Perhaps that was a subconscious snub to the then House Speaker Hastert -- a buffoon -- who had marched out to boast in from of TV cameras in March 2003 that the House Cafetaria menu no longer displayed French Fries and French Toasts. They had become Freedom Fries and Freedom Toasts.

(Note: last month the menu went back to French Fries and French Toasts.)

Now it is November 2006. The midterm elections left no doubt about how American voters perceived Bush and the Republicans. They were badly mauled. Even the neocons, protagonists of the war, have turned against the president.

The weekend after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, Kenneth Adelman and a couple of other promoters of the Iraq war gathered at Vice President Cheney's residence to celebrate. The invasion had been the "cakewalk" Adelman predicted. Cheney and his guests raised their glasses, toasting President Bush and victory. "It was a euphoric moment," Adelman recalled.

Forty-three months later, the cakewalk looks more like a death march, and Adelman has broken with the Bush team. He had an angry falling-out with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this fall. He and Cheney are no longer on speaking terms. And he believes that "the president is ultimately responsible" for what Adelman now calls "the debacle that was Iraq."

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The Mess That Is Iraq

The situation in Iraq continues to overshadow other issues as elected representatives try to come up with a solution to reduce our role. Not easy and nothing is going to happen in the near future. But Democratic Senator Charles Rangel (NY) stated: ".........that he will push to renew the military draft, as lawmakers in both parties sharpened their criticisms of the situation in Iraq and struggled for consensus and solutions."

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) has long advocated returning to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that House Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Yesterday he said "you bet your life" he will renew his drive for a draft.

"I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session," Rangel said on CBS's "Face the Nation." He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably and prompting political leaders to think twice before starting wars.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," said Rangel, a Korean War veteran. "If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft."